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@hacktuarial
5/6/2010 9:03:47 AM ZackAttack: We're in...
This is an indie, private, 18+ roleplay blog for Ram and Roy Kleinberg of the Tron franchise. Heavily headcanon-based, largely canon divergent. Important links:
Rules
About Ram
About Roy
Verses
I go by moss (29, she/her)
END OF LINE
@arcade-aid asked: but does he get it from his User? (re: this post)
Yes and no. Roy is capable of yapping in the right circumstances vs Ram who will just kinda Go Off about whatever. Roy is more… not exactly socially awkward, per se, but he’s way less extroverted and much more self conscious than Ram. Then add onto that the fact that he’s had to be super tight lipped about the Flynn Lives stuff for a long while — he’s used to simply saying less. With friends and with prompting he’ll ramble about certain topics. But nobody infodumps like Ram.
pictured: nerd to nerd friendship
I really posted some bullshit about how computer programs get freaky and then logged off for two years huh
Some very general thoughts about how the concepts of gender and sexuality and sex apply to Programs (under a cut for a little spiciness):
A Program's gender is typically defined by how their User identifies at the time they're written, and most will default to the pronouns and gender presentation of their User. In that sense, gender is a very loose concept to most Programs. It has no bearing on their societal structures and cultural norms.
For the sake of making any of this comprehensible I'll keep using the terms gender and sexuality, but just know that the words themselves probably won't mean anything to Programs. Ram only has a vague understanding of the differences between men and women based on the fact that gender can factor into insurance rates.
Programs don't have any primary sex characteristics (i.e. genitals or reproductive organs). They can't reproduce -- and unless they're familiar with User biology most of them probably don't even know what reproduction is -- so that would just be a lot of extra bits and pieces. It's Barbie / Ken doll anatomy under all that digital spandex, sorry. But this also ties into why gender isn't much of a Thing for Programs beyond some secondary sex characteristics and other variations in appearance.
There is an understanding that certain aesthetic features of one's render can be tied to gender. Programs can't completely rewrite themselves but can make cosmetic adjustments to their appearances. They can change their hair color and the circuitry patterns of their base layer suits, or add outer layers of clothing -- on Flynn's Grid, anyway, where Programs generally have a little more freedom outside of their functions. Changing one's render entirely is possible, at least in a temporary way that needs upkeep and refreshing (see Keller). Opposition to this comes only from rare and traditional Programs, who would decry any alteration to the image of one's User.
Attraction comes in many forms, just as it does for Users. Some Programs will only have an interest in those they're created to be linked to. The term "bonded pair" is used a lot in Tron fanwork and I don't have a strong enough opinion on that to call it something else, so we'll stick with it. For Programs who don't have a bondmate, attraction might still be based on functional compatability -- or it might be based on personality, physical features, etc.
It doesn't necessarily follow that a User's sexuality will dictate their Program's sexuality, either. Roy, for example, is very confidently aromantic and asexual. Ram is aesthetically and physically attracted to those with "masculine" or "male" features -- gay, by User standards.
Which brings us to the spicy time topic of how Programs have sex. And the long and short of it is... they don't, in User terms, because they don't have the parts for it. It's all circuit based. Programs can communicate through touch and energy exchange, among other methods (that's a whole other post), and the intent behind the contact determines how it's received. For them, "sex" is a matter of energy exchange with an intent to arouse. And you tend to get back what you give. Circuit stimulation is how that energy is conveyed. Or, y'know, frottage, to borrow the Ao3 tag.
Different Programs might have specific erogenous zones on their circuitry, but that's an individual thing. Circuits around the upper back and shoulder blade area, where a disc would sit, are common hotspots. Skin-layer circuitry under their base suits -- which, yes, can be partially or completely removed or derezzed -- is more sensitive than anything on a clothing layer.
Circuits flush purple when a Program is aroused (and that's canon baby!)
My favorite bit of extra / cut canon material is Ram being a Game Grid trainer. It’s such a perfectly demoralizing role to assign him — it plays to his need to be useful to and supportive of others but also sets him up for devastation when his efforts are ultimately meaningless. He’s just such a relentless optimist that he wants to believe he can make a difference, that he can provide better than the “standard substandard training” Sark threatens everyone with because he’s survived long enough to build impressive skills himself. But by design few programs make it more than a round or two of the games at most, and it’s not his fault or failing but Users does it feel like it is. Which is exactly what Sark and the MCP want — Ram is too good at the Games so he has to be broken some other way. He remembers the names and functions of every program he trained, and there are a few carved into the walls of his cell alongside the rows of tally marks.
Tron getting captured ends up being a major morale booster for Ram. He’s technically assigned to train him too, but Tron is already well equipped to handle whatever thr Ganes throw at him. So here’s someone Ram doesn’t have to feel personally responsible for — even though he still does to an extent — and can actually build a relationship with without worrying about survival chances as much as usual. For the first time he has faith in someone other than the Users.
From somewhere behind him, a light and happy voice called him. “You’re new here!” Yori shouted over the music. “Come on! Let’s dance!“ To be honest, she doesn’t do this with just any Program, but he seemed like a nice beta who was having trouble fitting in and she took pity on him.
Smiling, she took him by the hand and led him to the dance floor. “Have you ever danced before?” She asked once she was close enough to him to speak at a semi-normal volume.
"Oh, yes, hello, I'm--" he doesn't have time to complete the introductory statement before he's being pulled in the direction of the dance floor. The suddenness makes his processors seize for a moment, but the stranger's energy is friendly. Reassuring. Besides, the unknown is still a little exciting to Ram -- more exciting than anything he's seen or done in his corner of the system, that's for certain.
He allows himself to smile a little.
"I've never even heard music before!" he replies with a laugh. He thinks he likes it, though. The patterns, the rhythms, the way it makes the floor feel under his feet. What the programs around him are doing seems simple enough -- just moving in time with the music. He sways slightly, deciding he can probably do that, too. "How did you know I was new?"
me trying to keep everyone happy and alive at least ONCE in identity
24/7 ABBA playing in this program's head btw
A grimace.
It was unavoidable. Jake's features were often naturally set in that doubtful stare, lips either neutrally displeased or scowling against the interruption of someone's voice intruding on his thoughts, and Ram wouldn't receive any special treatment due to his familiarity with the realm. Usefulness was the only thing he would consider worth the time - and the incessant chatter, why did nobody seem bothered by talking when they were being hunted? - and, for the moment, the sharper pieces of his language were kept from escaping in visceral disapproval for the talk.
A grunt when he would pick himself up from having bent over the street's decrepit asphalt ( how unsettling when the concrete would lift away, splitting at the cracks to reveal an empty void of running numbers and broken pixels beneath the façade ) until he would turn to the other.
"Hard to have a life story when you don't have a life, I'd imagine." It came out cruel, as only partially intended, that gaze shifting sideways while he plucked idly at the glowing lines of his new jacket. It was too obvious. Too bright. "On account of you being...whatever you are."
It was strange, in a way, that a place like this would provide an avenue for direct User communication the likes of which Ram had never experienced before. Or any program had experienced before, really. Flynn was a... unique case, he'd come to learn. Willing to accept a version of reality so counter to his own, immediately understanding of the fact that life came in many shapes and forms even if it was alien. It turned out that not everyone was so agreeable to the concept. Maybe half of the other survivors believed -- or cared to believe -- Ram's bizarre stories, which was a strangely ironic wall to encounter. Do you believe in the Users? he'd asked of countless conscripts.
He hadn't expected doubt to run in both directions. A sobering thought he didn't have the time or the processing power to parse through in this environment.
"A Program, you mean?" Playing along like he didn't pick up on Jake's implication -- that he was lesser than, his runtime less weighty than a life lived on the other side of the screen. A more philosophical debate than he typically cared to engage in, and one he didn't necessarily know if he could pose a good argument against. Because Ram did, inherently, see a User's life as higher value than his own. Even if the rules here were so much less rigid. "I've probably been running longer than you've been alive, y'know. Thousands of cycles of experiences -- what counts as life, to you?"
ram meeting anyone in the Arq server:
Tron (1982) directed by Steven Lisberger
So long, sucker.
@alwaysyori liked for a starter
It's the first time he's explored beyond the quiet sector where he was first 'rezzed. He has a designation and the vague sense of what his function is meant to be, but not much else. That will come in time, he figures.
Spending his cycles in relative solitude while his User makes code adjustments here and there has all been well and good -- but Ram is bored. Bored and a little lonely. For a program still in beta he's already itching to do something. To do his job and meet people and be of use to someone, somewhere. He's getting there, and he knows it won't be long before he's sent out into the world to complete his function, but for now he wants to at least see what Encom's other programs are up to.
That's what brings him to the club. It's all bright lights and pulsing beats, a far cry from the partition he's been living behind. The programs inside are nice enough -- offering him a smile and a nod here and there. He's still a little awkward, though. Unsure. He sticks to the fringes of where other programs are dancing and laughing, wanting to be a part of it but hesitant about about just jumping in.
He wasn't thrilled about having to listen to the other. These were matters that should have been under his scope of understanding; it wasn't anything new, this twisted, ever changing world was a constant in throwing them into these new and odd places that never seemed to connect to one another, places where the rules shifted and reality itself could warp into another forgotten legacy at the whim of its inhabitants. He knew the rules were always the same no matter where they woke up. The game was always played according to that unnatural law that stated one needed energy to live.
A grimace when Ram would go into his explanation. Much to Park's displeasure, there were a whole lot of words he didn't understand involved in that - the very reason he hated these little surprises left for them to maneuver. One withering glance around left the impression that this was, dreadfully, perhaps one of those times he shouldn't wander off on his own. It could be useful having someone who knew their way around beside him. It would be even more useful to have a distraction should the need arise.
"Alright. Conduits, towers, red thing means bad. Got it." A twist of lips into a sneer as grey eyed stare turned to his company. This was going to be an incredibly long night. "Someone really went hard into making this into matrix-level bullshit, huh? Seems like a whole lot of effort put into the wrong thing."
While the response certainly wasn't an outright query for help, it wasn't a flat dismissal, either. Ram would take that -- though he made a commendable effort at keeping his smile to himself. It was hard finding ways to feel useful in this place, and like any program he struggled with the notion that he wasn't living up to some User-serving function. If guidance in this familiar slice of the realm was the best he could provide, then he was all too happy to do it.
"C'mon," he prompted, canting his head towards an eerily empty street. "I can at least show you where the conduits in this sector have been spawning."
Just as his words were foreign to Jake, many of the things the other survivors said made little sense to Ram. He doubted the User was referring to matrices in a mathematical sense, but if there was a reference in that statement he wasn't familiar with it. "Most systems don't look like this," he offered. "But I've never seen another system that was built from the inside, either, so-- Sorry, I know, no life story."
I agree with Grandma Shor
I think legacy did a decent job but it also fundamentally ignores how important Ram and Tron himself were to the story. You can do a father/son focus without pushing them out completely (yea Tron is technically there but as an attack dog so I mean is he?)
